From: Robin Smith <robinsmith59>
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 23:51:18 -0500

Dean Schneider writing from Robin Smith's e-mail address:

Patrick Jones questions the humor and relevance of The Teacher's Funeral for today's
"hip hop infused teen culture." I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Like Patrick, I'm a book reviewer, and I reviewed The Teacher's Funeral and found it, as I said before, to be funny, nicely written, and a great book. It's really for a middle school audience, though I'm sure the author would hope it would "cross over" for YA and adults. Its solid reviews certainly indicate that adults like it and think young readers will too.

I'm not quite sure what to make of your "hip hop infused teen culture," Patrick. It seems to me that the point of all great literature is to take readers out of their own world into other worlds, and as Michael Cart said in this month's Booklist magazine, "And that, of course, is why it's so important for those citizens called
'adolescents,' 'teenagers,' and 'young adults' to read. Because they are the quintessential solipsists; they, more than anybody else, need to be transported outside of themselves." I'd be horrified to see young adults reading only books that reflect their own world back at them. Historical fiction, fantasy, and other genres offer transportation to other worlds, other points of view necessary for growing up, and if they're written well, they offer fun along the way.

Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee schneiderd at some.place
Received on Tue 28 Sep 2004 11:51:18 PM CDT